15th October 1973

Considering that now we're quite far into the school term me and James decided it was about time to pull a prank. Not a big one of course just a small one to get us going. James put in this huge order for dungbombs which arrived this morning, in time for us to do the prank this afternoon. It's really a simple one but if it goes right it will be incredibly satisfying. Severus Snape, we've found out through careful observation, can be counted on to be on the fourth floor corridor at 4:00 pmevery week day where he will walk right to the end, to the corner, sit down and stick his nose in a book.

All me and James planned to do was set off our entire collection of dungbombs. James had found a spell that would make them go off when they detected human presence so Snape wouldn't even need to touch them. We thought it was a pretty genius plan.

"Are you going to come Remus?" James asked at about half past three that afternoon.

"No, I don't think so," he lowered his voice, "full moon's coming up. I'm getting a bit tired."

We nodded in understanding. "What about you Pete?"

"Yeah I'll come," he said enthusiastically. He looked thrilled to have been invited.

"Right that's sorted then. Got the invisibility cloak James? Just in case?"

He picked up his bag and a pulled out a small section of silvery material.

"Check. Lets go then, we can get there early." And the three of us crawled through the portrait hole.

•••••••••

"All set. Now we wait in here until we see old Snivellus," said James closing the door on the store cupboard we were hiding in. For a store cupboard, it was actually pretty roomy with a small window in the door and it was almost opposite the corner where Snape would sit so we could look out and watch his reaction.

"We've got about ten minutes," I said checking my watch. James grinned and so did Peter although he seemed to be unable to decide whether he should be more excited or nervous.

"Wait do you hear that?" James said suddenly. Peter and I both pressed our ears against the door. Sure enough we there was a sound coming from outside. Footsteps.

"Do you think Snape's early?" Peter whispered but James shook his head.

"The footsteps are too light, it's not him." He pulled the invisibility cloak over his head and looked out the window.

"Alana Tinson," he muttered.

"What do we do?" Peter asked, panicked.

Me and James looked at each other. We both knew we couldn't let her get past this door or the dungbombs would explode when she went by and not Snape. Her footsteps were getting louder, she was getting closer.

Without really thinking, I opened the door and slipped out behind her.

"Sorry," I whispered in her ear and before she could realise what was going on I slipped one hand over her mouth and wrapped my other arm around her waist, hoping that she wouldn't hit me, and pulled her into the store cupboard to join James and Peter. I could feel my heart thumping for some reason louder than usual in my chest.

As James shut the door behind us, she stamped on my foot with surprising force causing me to instantly let go of her as my hands now clutched my toes.

"What the hell?" she demanded angrily, glaring around at all of us.

"Please keep your voice down," said James who was still standing by the door and glancing out the window every now and then.

She shot him a furious look before saying, "somebody better explain."

But in all fairness, she was now speaking more quietly.

"Look, " I started, in what I hoped was a calming voice, "really we were just helping you, I -"

"Helping me?" she spluttered indignantly," I was just minding my own business when you come and drag me in here-"

James cut her off, "You should look at it as a compliment. Sirius doesn't drag just any girl into a store cupboard."

Pink tinged her cheeks slightly but she remained looking angry. "I'm going to leave," she announced and made towards the door but before she could reach it James threw himself in front of it, blocking her way.

"No! Just wait for five minutes," he requested, "then you can leave."

Alana's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What's going on?"

"We're just pulling a little prank," I explained," and we didn't want you to be caught up in it and if you'd carried on walking then you would have been."

Judging by the look on her face she couldn't tell whether or not I was telling her the truth, but at least now she wasn't trying to get past James, she just stood there with her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised.

"Thank you," said James gratefully. Peter was staring at her in awe, probably because she had stood up to us which was something not many people usually did.

And then again we heard footsteps. James quickly looked out the window again and this time he grinned.

"Here he comes!"

Peter and I rushed back to the door while Alana watched us curiously.

Sure enough, Snape was walking quickly down the corridor to his corner; closer to the dungbombs. Now he was just within touching distance... BOOM! They exploded right in his face, clouds of foul smelling gas going everywhere. The three of us all collapsed with silent laughter and even Alana was biting her lip trying to stop her smirk.

Snape was furious. He angrily waved away the smoke as he looked around for someone to blame. Spotting our store cupboard he started to make his way over.

"Quick," said James, still laughing, as he threw the invisibility cloak over the four of us and we shuffled in to the corner.

The door burst open and Snape basically fell in the door. You could clearly see the fury etched on his face. He scanned the room, his eyes passing over the corner where we stood, but of course he couldn't see us. He left again, shutting the door with a slam. We stayed still for a moment longer until we heard Snape's footsteps retreating back down the corridor.

"That was brilliant!" Peter exclaimed.

"Did you ever doubt it?" I said smugly.

"Now you can go," James said to Alana, swinging the door open as he did so.

Alana seemed to be debating whether to laugh or tell us off but took the invitation.

"Thank you," she replied before breezing out of the open door.

I stared after her until she disappeared round the corner and out of sight. When I turned back around, James was grinning with a satisfied look on his face.

"What?" I challenged but his only answer was a laugh before saying, "we should inform Remus of our success.

As soon as we entered the common room Remus looked up eagerly.

"So? Did everything work?"

"Like a dream," I said as I settled into the nearest arm chair.

"Sirius got an added bonus as well," James added, and to answer Remus' quizzical look, "Alana Tinson," he said simply.

"Ah," Remus said with a nod of understanding.

I opened my mouth to speak but Remus cut me off.

"Don't even try to deny it."

"Deny what?"

"Seriously?"

"Mate, you clearly fancy Tinson," James interjected, "I've told you once and I will tell you again."

For the rest of the evening I brushed off their claims but once I got into bed all I could hear was their voices in my head. And the more I thought about it, the more I gradually began to realise that I did in fact, have feelings for Alana Tinson.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review and/or follow and I hope you're enjoying the story! I will try to update soon :)